Wednesday, April 25, 2018

NYC Radio: Boomer On Francesa's Return..People Getting Screwed

Boomer Esiason, who had been WFAN’s most visible personality in the post-Mike Francesa era, weighed in first thing Wednesday morning on Francesa’s impending return to the station, saying "it just looks pathetic."

During a nearly half-hour opening on the topic, Esiason and morning co-host Gregg Giannotti said they understood the move from a business perspective but were concerned over the impact on Chris Carlin, Maggie Gray and Bart Scott, who will have diminished roles.

“Radio can be a real sewer pit, and there’s a lot of backstabbing and knife-throwing and all that other stuff that goes on,” Esiason said. “We try to stay above all that stuff, but unfortunately you can’t, and three people basically have gotten screwed."

Three people basically have gotten screwed. I don’t care how you put it — they’ve gotten screwed. They’ve gotten screwed by a guy who said he was never going to be on this radio station again. Who decided to come back because of some conspiracy to keep him off the air. I have no idea what the hell that means.”

Those three people are Chris Carlin, Maggie Gray and Bart Scott, whose show will be reduced, as will “Joe & Evan,” to clear space for Francesa. Francesa went above the station’s head, to its parent company, Entercom, and its president, David Field, according to The NY Post’s Andrew Marchand, to pull the strings on his return.

Meanwhile, barring any contract negotiation snags, Mike Francesa could be back on WFAN on Tuesday, a person familiar with the deal told Newsday Wednesday morning.

That presumes an announcement comes by Thursday from Entercom, which owns WFAN, and CAA, the agency that represents Francesa, which seems probable.

Francesa is expected to sign a deal that covers the rest of this year and two more, through the end of 2020.